Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Researches

Al-Qasim Green University

College of Engineering
Department of Hydraulic Structures Engineering

Ground - Water Hydraulic

4th Stage
2021-2022

Lecturer:
Shahad Abdulkareem Raheem
Ground - Water Hydraulic M. Sc. Shahad Abdulkareem Raheem

1. Introduction
Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and soil pore spaces and
in the fractures of rock formations. Subsurface water is generally divided into two major
types: phreatic water or soil moisture in the
unsaturated zone, and groundwater in the saturated zone. This division is made mainly
because of the differences in the physics of flow of water in the saturated versus the
unsaturated zone. Unsaturated zones are usually found above saturated zones and extent
upward to ground surface, because water here includes soil moisture within the root zone.

2. Hydrologic Cycle
As shown in figure 1, water evaporates from the oceans and land surfaces to become water
vapor that is carried over the earth by atmospheric circulation. The water vapor condense
and precipitates on the land and oceans. The precipitated water may be intercepted by
vegetation, become overland flow over the ground surface, infiltrates into the ground,
flow through the soil as subsurface flow, or discharge as surface runoff. Evaporation from
the land surface comprises evaporation directly from soil and vegetation surfaces, and
transpiration through plant leaves. Collectively these processes are called
evapotranspiration. Infiltrated water may percolate deeper to recharge ground water and
later become spring-flow or seepage into streams to also become stream-flow.

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Ground - Water Hydraulic M. Sc. Shahad Abdulkareem Raheem

Figure 1: Hydrologic cycle

A hydrologic system is defined as a structure or volume in space, surrounded by a
boundary that accepts water and other inputs, operates on them internally and produces
them as outputs. The structure (for surface or subsurface flow) or volume in space (for
atmospheric moisture flow) is the totality of the flow paths through which the water may
pass as throughput from the point it enters the system to the point it leaves. The boundary
is a continuous surface defined in three dimensions enclosing the volume or structure. A
working medium enters the system as input, interacts with the structure and other media,
and leaves as output. It can be represented as a system containing three sub-systems:
1. The atmospheric water system.
2. The surface water system.
3. The subsurface water system.
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Ground - Water Hydraulic M. Sc. Shahad Abdulkareem Raheem

2.1 The Ground – Water System in the Hydrologic Cycle

Water bearing formations of the earth’s crust act as a conduits for the transmission and as
reservoirs for storage of water. Water enters these formations from the ground surface or
from bodies of surface water, after which it travels slowly foe varying distances until it
returns to the surface by action of natural flow, plants, or humans. The storage capacity of
groundwater reservoirs combined with small flow rates providing large, extensively
distributed sources of water supply. Practically all groundwater originates as surface
water. Principal sources of natural recharge includes precipitation, stream flow, lakes, and
reservoirs. Other contributions, known as artificial recharge, occurs from excess irrigation,
seepage from channels, and water purposely applied to augment groundwater supplies.
Water within the ground moves downward through the unsaturated zone under the action
of gravity, whereas in the saturated zone it moves in a direction determined by the
surrounding hydraulic situation.

3. Aquifers
Groundwater occurs in many types of geologic formations; those known as aquifers are of
most importance. An aquifer may be defined as a formation that contains sufficient
saturated permeable material to yield significant quantities of water to wells and springs.
Or “a natural zone (geological formation) below the surface that yields water in
sufficiently large amounts to be important economically”. This implies an ability to store
and to transmit water.
Aquifers may be overlain or underlain by a confining bed, which may be defined as a
relatively impermeable material adjacent to one or more aquifers. Clearly, there are
various types of confining beds; the following types are well established:
1. Aquiclude: A saturated but relatively impermeable material that does not yield
appreciable quantities of water to wells; clay is an example.
2. Aquifuge: A relatively impermeable formation neither containing nor transmitting

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Ground - Water Hydraulic M. Sc. Shahad Abdulkareem Raheem

water; solid granite belongs in this category.

3. Aquitard: A saturated but poorly permeable layer that impedes groundwater movement
and does not yield water freely to wells, that may transmit significant water to or from
adjacent aquifers and, where sufficiently thick, may constitute an important
groundwater -storage zone; sandy clay is an example.

4. Types of Aquifers
Most aquifers are of large areal extent and may be visualized as underground storage
reservoirs. Water enters a reservoir from natural or artificial recharge; it primarily flows
out under the action of gravity or is extracted by wells. Ordinarily, the annual volume of
water removed or replaced represents only a small fraction of the total storage capacity.
Aquifers may be classed as unconfined or confined, depending on the presence or absence
of a water table, while a leaky aquifer represents a combination of the two types.

4.1 Unconfined Aquifer

An unconfined aquifer possesses no overlying confining layer, but may sit upon an
impermeable or slightly permeable bed. Therefore, the top of the unsaturated zone of an
unconfined aquifer is most often the ground surface, and the top of the saturated zone is
usually under negative pressure or tension. This latter property gives rise to the definition
of the water table which is simply the surface where the relative pressure is zero, i.e., the
absolute pressure is atmospheric (as shown in figure 2). Above the water table, the
medium is still saturated but the water is held by capillary forces, thus creating a negative
pressure head, or tension. This tension can exist even though the pores may be saturated
between the water table and the top of the capillary fringe. Below the water table, the
water pressure increases with depth.

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Ground - Water Hydraulic M. Sc. Shahad Abdulkareem Raheem

Figure 2: Unconfined aquifer

An unconfined aquifer is one in which a water table varies in undulating form and in
slope, depending on areas of recharge and discharge, pumping from wells, and
permeability. Rises and falls in the water table correspond to changes in the volume of
water in storage within an aquifer.

4.2 Confined Aquifer

An aquifer that is sandwiched between two impermeable layers or formations that are
impermeable under pressure greater than atmospheric pressure is called a confined aquifer
if it is totally saturated from top to bottom (as shown in figure 3). If the recharge area for
the aquifer is located at a higher elevation than the top of the aquifer, and a well is drilled
into the aquifer, the water level will rise above the top. Such an aquifer is known as an
artesian aquifer. Water enters a confined aquifer in an area where the confining bed rises
to the surface, where the confining bed ends underground, the aquifer becomes
unconfined.

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Ground - Water Hydraulic M. Sc. Shahad Abdulkareem Raheem

Figure 3: confined aquifer

A region supplying water to a confined aquifer is known as a recharge area; water may
also enter by leakage through a confining bed (see Figure 4). Rises and falls of water in
wells penetrating confined aquifers result primarily from changes in pressure rather than
changes in storage volumes. Hence, confined aquifers display only small changes in
storage and serve primarily as conduits for conveying water from recharge areas to
locations of natural or artificial discharge.
The piezometric surface,(pressure surface), of a confined aquifer is an imaginary surface
corresponding with the hydrostatic pressure level of the water in the aquifer. The water
level in a well penetrating a confined aquifer defines the elevation of the piezometric
surface at that point.
The piezometric surface occurs above the ground surface because the higher elevation of
the recharge area causes the pressure head to rise to such an elevation. The water within
the aquifer will be partly under elastic storage. Pumping a well or allowing it to flow will
release the water from storage. It should be noted that a confined aquifer becomes an
unconfined aquifer when the piezometric surface falls below the bottom of the upper
confining bed. Also, quite commonly an unconfined aquifer exists above a confined one,
as shown in Figure 4.

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Ground - Water Hydraulic M. Sc. Shahad Abdulkareem Raheem

Figure 4: Schematic cross section illustrating unconfined and confined aquifers.

4.3 Leaky Aquifer

Leaky aquifers are semiconfined aquifers. These are a common feature in valleys, plains,
or former lake basins where a permeable stratum is overlain or underlain by a semi-
pervious aquitard, or semi-confining layer (figure 5). Pumping from a well in a leaky
aquifer removes water in two ways: by horizontal flow within the aquifer and by vertical
flow through the aquitard into the aquifer.

4.4 Idealized Aquifer

For mathematical calculations of the storage and flow of groundwater, aquifers are
frequently assumed to be homogeneous and isotropic. A homogeneous aquifer possesses
hydrologic properties that are everywhere identical. An isotropic aquifer’s properties are
independent of direction. Such idealized aquifers do not exist.

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Ground - Water Hydraulic M. Sc. Shahad Abdulkareem Raheem

Figure 5: sketch of Leaky or semi-confined aquifer.